Page 4 of On Thin Ice

“Maybe…” I muse, trying not to smile.

He stifles a laugh. “What the fuck has gotten into you? You spoke to her once and you’re obsessed.”

To be clear, I don’t know what has gotten into me. I just really fucking want this girl, more than I think I’ve ever wanted anyone before. “Is she single?” I say, peering up at Kyle from where he’s sat himself beside me on the edge of the bed.

“Yeah, only since last week. Honestly though man I think you’re wasting your time with her, she’s stubborn so if she’s telling you no, it’s most likely always going to be a no.”

“We’ll see about that.”

It’s like everyone's goal here is purely to spur me on, to make me even more desperate for a taste of her.

Kyle launches one of my many pillows at my head and leaves the room with a loud bout of laughter.

“I wasn’t finished with my questions!” I shout as he disappears from sight. “I was!” He yells back, laughter still rippling his voice.

I lay back again, grabbing my phone from my pocket and typing her name into Facebook. It doesn’t take me long to find her profile and as I scroll through her pictures I realise she’s a gymnast like my sister Lois. I bet they know each other.

After about half an hour of social media stalking I click ‘Add friend’ on her profile. Within seconds the button goes back to blue, indicating that she rejected my friend request. I fight the playful smile that pulls at my lips and click, ‘Add friend’ again. When she hasn’t responded in thirtyseconds I click my lock screen shut and close my eyes. As fun as this game with her is I'm so fucking tired I could pass out, today’s been full speed and I only got five hours of sleep last night. When we got to the rink this morning there was water leaking from our gym where we do all of our weight training and warm up shit. We weight train at least once a day so if that shitty gym is flooded we’re going to have a huge problem on our hands.

Just as I feel my ever buzzing brain starting to switch off I hear a ping from my phone. I squint my eyes, peeling them open only a crack to read the message on my screen.

Callie Burch:

‘Stop friend requesting me, stalker.’ My face lights up with a triumphant grin. I don’t care if she’s calling me names, getting pissed at me or wanting to rip my head off. Any sort of attention from this beauty is good attention and the more she talks to me, the more likely that I’ll eventually get her to drop her pants and give in. My god, I need a night with this woman, maybe even more than one.

Chapter 4

Callie

“Callie I don’t know how many times I need to repeat myself this morning, have you gone deaf?”

I wish I had, if I have to hear Ellen yell my name across the gym one more time I might stab white hot pokers into my ears.

“Straighten your legs on that walkover or I’m going to come over there and tape wooden boards to them!” She yells, throwing her hands in the air before turning back to where Lois hangs sheepishly on the bar. My beam routine is fucking awful this season, I don’t know what’s wrong with me but I just can’t get the hang of it. I have all the skills under my belt, beam is my strongest piece but for some infuriating reason I just can’t nail this routine. To be honest I'm screwing up all of my routines this season, I'm sure Ellen manufactured the most difficult routines possible just so she can watch me crumble. But I’m nothing if not determined so I try once more. Training is almost over and I can’t wait to get home tonight, get into my comfiest PJs and sit on the couch with Molly eating our body weight in cookie dough flavoured ice cream.

I straighten my arms above my head, shuffling my feet on the beam before launching myself forwards. My legs travel over my head and my feet hit the beam again one by one. The momentum is too strong though, I misjudged it again and soon my feet land on the huge mat below the beam with a crash that echoes through the gym. I hear Ellen sigh loudly from across the room and I know I'm in for it again.

I’m used to being yelled at, my whole life I’ve been subjected to screaming and yelling in the gym. You don’t become successful at gymnastics without being constantly criticised and told your doing things wrong. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t drain the life out of you though. “Right! All of you on the floor now, we’re stretching before we finish.” Ellen huffs and the rest of my teammates make their way over to our huge floor area.

I’m so grateful for the team I have here, there’s not one of them I don’t like or get along with. Actually that would be a little bit of a lie, there’s always Sofia, bitching about her boyfriend or telling us all were doing things wrong in our routines. I don’t know why she doesn’t just focus on her own shit, it would make the whole gym a lot more pleasant to be in. The rest of my girls though, Lois, Anais and Jennifer are great to work with and I always feel at ease when we are competing in team events.

Obviously Ellen makes me go first for stretching, I swear that woman made me captain of the team solely so she’d have a reason to pick on me. I sit down into a front split, my good leg first of course and Ellen quickly lifts my back leg, stretching my muscles and making me grit my teeth together. I can hear her counting under her breath whilst my teammates sit in a line watching, waiting for their turn in the torture chamber. As she reaches my sixtieth second of pain, the gym door swings open, squeaking and dragging all of our eyes in the direction of the sound. A crowd of huge, topless men filter into the gym, my dad trailing behind them. Normally twelve hunky, gorgeous, shirtless men all swarming into our gym would be like a dream, but these particular men are the bane of my existence. One in particular, who finds me immediately and overpowers me with his Hollywood smile. I roll my eyes which only makes Sean titter and nudge his shoulder into Kyle’s, gesturing towards me like I'm a zoo animal. “Can I help you gentlemen?” Ellen squawks, lifting her eyebrows so high I almost lose them in her hairline.

I’m still sitting in my splits, much more comfortable now Ellen’s talons are off me and she’s focusing on the greek god looking giants who have just interrupted our training session. My eyes fight not to look at Sean, but the warmth that settles between my thighs wins this particular battle and I spare one more glance his way. His bottom lip is pulled between his teeth and his swampy eyes are winding all over my body. I suddenly feel very exposed in my crop top and gym shorts, I'll admit they’re so tight they’re practically painted on, but they need to be for this kind of sport. I’m just grateful I chose not to wear a leotard today. He spots me looking at him when his eyes rise up from my chest and he grins brightly again. Those fucking dimples. Why are they so irresistible?

My dad shoves his way through the sea of hockey players and comes to the front of the group, before throwing me a quick, forced smile. “Our gym is flooded again so I’m afraid we’ll be using your floor for the foreseeable future.” He sighs and my brain almost explodes out of my skull.

This isn’t the first time we’ve been in this shitty situation, the hockey team have a small gym area off the side of the rink that they use for weight training. The fucking thing has already flooded once this year and we were stuck with them using our floor everyday for an hour, eating up our training time. Like I said earlier, my routines this season are dog shit and the last thing any of us need is for sweaty, stinking hockey players to be parading around shirtless in our gym, soaking up our precious time that could be used perfecting our routines before competitions start. I groan loudly, slapping my hands down on the ground. “Are you fucking serious?”

“Language Callie!” My dad snaps, fisting his hips and trying to seem authoritative.

“I’m sorry Dad, but this is bullshit.” I groan, snapping up from my splits and rising to my feet.

I’m so done with this year already, we’ve only been back at university for a few weeks and already the entire year has pretty much gone to shit. My teammates watch as I make my way towards the door in a sulk. Sean moves to the right slightly, purposefully wedging himself between Kyle and Nick so I have to pass through the middle of them to exit. The closer I get the more defined his torso looks, the ridged planes of his stomach make my vagina excited again and I silently tell her to calm the fuck down, she’s not getting any action from that man whore, over my dead body. He’s not making it easier for me to stay strong willed though when he comes into the gym looking like that. He’s grinning from ear to ear again, as usual and the closer I get to him the more obvious it is that my resolve at hating him is faltering. Don’t get me wrong I do hate him for needing to have his dick wet at all times, but why does he have to be such a sex magnet?

I huff. “Urgh, why do you have to be so hot? It’s a shame you’re an irritating asshole.” I grumble at him, slapping at Sean and Kyle’s bare chests and making a gap between them that I can squeeze through. The second the back of my hand hits Sean’s stomach I hear him groan and his palm lands where mine just was against his skin.

“She touched me.” He moans and I hear Kyle cackle.

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